Friday, August 31, 2012

Professor Kai Larsen (K.Larsen) passed away in Denmark on Thursday, August 23, 2012 in his 86th year. He was a well-known botanist and a Professor of botany at Århus University, Denmark. In 1963, Professor Larsen, in collaboration with Professor Tem Smitinand and other legendary botanists, started the Flora of Thailand Project under Thai-Danish collaboration. He had directed the extensive Project, which aims to describe all of Thailand flora, and had actively participated in it since then throughout the years in spite of his age. His extensive lifelong scientific works and his untiring will have inspired hundreds of botanists and he shall long be in our memory always.

A new semi-mycotrophic species, Burmannia larseniana, is described from northern Thailand. The species is related to B. pusilla, a species widely distributed in Cambodia, Vietnam, Burma, India and Sri Lanka, but can be easily distinguished from the latter by its succulent stem, single-veined leaf, and the outer perianth lobes with double margins that encircle the inner perianth lobes. The ecological preferences of the species are also discussed.

The genus Kaisupeea is established for Boea herbacea, a species long recognised as being out of place in Boea, and two new species closely allied to it. These plants produce annual flowering stems whose basal leaves may be represented by broad foliaceous cataphylls. Kaisupeea herbacea and K. cyanea have spirally twisted fruit-valves, but those of K. orthocarpa are straight. Kaisupeea ranges from Moulmein in Burma [Mawlamyne in Myanmnar] eastwards across Thailand to Bassac on the Mekong river in lower Laos and south to the neighbourhood of Satun on the south coast of Thailand just north of the Malaysian border.

Etymology: The name is an amalgamation of the forenames of the Danish/Thailand botanists Kai and Supee Larsen.

Species number: 3 [Kaisupeeaherbacea (C.B.Clarke) B.L.Burtt,

Kaisupeeacyanea B.L.Burtt,

Kaisupeea orthocarpa B.L.Burtt].

Distribution: Myanmar, Thailand, S Laos.

Notes: The genus is remarkable for the perennial habit with annual stems. Kaisupeea herbacea dies down to the ground in the unfavourable season, and no new leaves appear above ground until favourable conditions return. Then there appear, not normal foliage leaves, but light green expanded leaf-bases, that have presumably been covering the new bud underground; this soon bursts through and produces a flowering stem whose leaves diminish quickly upwards as do the axillary inflorescences so that the whole forms a terminal thyrse about 0.5 m high. Details of this regime deserve study in the field.“ (Burtt 1998: 3).

Milica Stankovic, Sahut Chantanaorrapint and Kitichate Sridith. 2013. Notes on the Vegetation of the Fast-flowing Streams in Peninsular Thailand, the Tropical Mainland of South East Asia. Taiwania.58(4): 275‒290.

Etymology: Named for M. [Murray] R. [Ross] Henderson (1899-1982), a Scottish botanist working mainly in Singapore and the Malay Peninsula.

Ecology: On damp limestone rocks, especially at cave entrances.

Distribution: Malay Peninsula (Pahang: Bkt. Charas and vicinity).

Notes: The genus is based on Paraboea bettiana M.R.Hend., which is discordant with the other species of Paraboea (Burtt 1984). A unique feature is the patch of glands on the upper lip of the corolla, also remarkable are the straight plagiocarpic fruits opening only on the upper side.

Notes: The only species was originally described as Boea minutiflora Ridl. Remarkable is the resupinate white and widely open flower with a yellow anther cone in the center (syndrome of an oligandric pollen flower).

We show using the most complete phylogeny of one of the most species-rich orders of vertebrates (Gobiiformes), and calibrations from the rich fossil record of teleost fishes, that the genus Typhleotris, endemic to subterranean karst habitats in southwestern Madagascar, is the sister group to Milyeringa, endemic to similar subterranean systems in northwestern Australia. Both groups are eyeless, and our phylogenetic and biogeographic results show that these obligate cave fishes now found on opposite ends of the Indian Ocean (separated by nearly 7,000 km) are each others closest relatives and owe their origins to the break up of the southern supercontinent, Gondwana, at the end of the Cretaceous period. Trans-oceanic sister-group relationships are otherwise unknown between blind, cave-adapted vertebrates and our results provide an extraordinary case of Gondwanan vicariance.

Abstract
A phylogeny of Milyeringidae is reported and a new species, Milyeringa brooksi, is described from Cape Range National Park in the North West Cape (Cape Range Peninsula) of Australia. This species is distinguished on the basis of morphological and molecular characters from its only congener Milyeringa veritas. These diagnostic characters are related to a unique pattern of sensory papillae on the body and synapomorphies in three genes (cytochrome c oxidase I, cytochrome b, and NADH dehydrogenase 2). The new species is known only from the southern portion of the North West Cape spanning roughly 50 kilometers of subterranean habitat. This habitat is exceedingly rare and measures to preserve it and its fauna should be taken.Key words: blind, cave, stygobites, taxonomy, troglodytic

A fragmentary coracoid as well as isolated ulnae, carpometacarpi, and tarsometatarsi from the Varswater Formation at Langebaanweg, South Africa (early Pliocene), can be assigned to a new genus and species of true woodpecker (Picidae, Picinae), Australopicus nelsonmandelai, gen. et sp. nov. The new taxon is the first documented pre-Pleistocene record of woodpeckers from the entire African continent and it is clearly distinct from the three extant lineages of Picinae that are endemic to sub-Saharan Africa, i.e., Campethera-Geocolaptes, Dendropicos, and Dendrocopos obsoletus. Our phylogenetic analysis shows that the new taxon forms a clade with the extant woodpecker genera Celeus and Dryocopus, which do not occur in Africa, but in the Americas and Eurasia. The new taxon represents a previously unknown fourth lineage of African woodpeckers of Eurasian origin that probably became isolated on the African continent as a result of environmental changes during the Miocene. Evidence for an arboreal true woodpecker in the fossil record strongly supports previous hypotheses regarding the presence of riverine forests at Langebaanweg during the early Pliocene.

Albrecht Manegold, Antoine Louchart. 2012. Biogeographic and Paleoenvironmental Implications of a New Woodpecker Species (Aves, Picidae) from the Early Pliocene of South Africa. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 32 (4),

The Madagascan vangas include 22 species which differ considerably in terms of morphology and resulting foraging habits..

photo: Jon Fjeldså

Abstract

Adaptive radiation is the rapid diversification of a single lineage into many species that inhabit a variety of environments or use a variety of resources and differ in traits required to exploit these. Why some lineages undergo adaptive radiation is not well-understood, but filling unoccupied ecological space appears to be a common feature. We construct a complete, dated, species-level phylogeny of the endemic Vangidae of Madagascar. This passerine bird radiation represents a classic, but poorly known, avian adaptive radiation. Our results reveal an initial rapid increase in evolutionary lineages and diversification in morphospace after colonizing Madagascar in the late Oligocene some 25 Mya. A subsequent key innovation involving unique bill morphology was associated with a second increase in diversification rates about 10 Mya. The volume of morphospace occupied by contemporary Madagascan vangas is in many aspects as large (shape variation)—or even larger (size variation)—as that of other better-known avian adaptive radiations, including the much younger Galapagos Darwin's finches and Hawaiian honeycreepers. Morphological space bears a close relationship to diet, substrate use, and foraging movements, and thus our results demonstrate the great extent of the evolutionary diversification of the Madagascan vangas.

Phylogenetic relationships of the family Vangidae and representatives of several other passeriform families were inferred from 882 base positions of mitochondrial DNA sequences of 12S and 16S rRNA genes. Results indicated the monophyly of the Vangidae, which includes the genus Tylas, hitherto often placed in the family Pycnonotidae. Our results also revealed the Malagasy endemic Newtonia, a genus never previously assigned to the Vangidae, to be a member of this family. These results suggest the occurrence of an extensive in situ radiation of this family within Madagascar, and that the extant high diversity of this family is not the result of multiple colonizations from outside. The extremely high morphological and ecological diversification of the family seems to have been enhanced through the use and ultimate occupancy of vacant niches in this island.

We examine patterns of morphological and molecular genetic differentiation in the endemic Mentocrex kioloides complex of Madagascar. This forest-dwelling rail (often placed in Canirallus) is known from two subspecies: M. k. kioloides, which occurs in the island’s humid central and eastern forests; and M. k. berliozi, which occurs in the transitional dry deciduoushumid forests of the northwest. Two new specimens (an adult and a downy young) recently became available from limestone karst areas of the lowland central west, the adult of which is notably different in size and plumage coloration, as well as showing considerable genetic divergence, from the two recognized subspecies of M. kioloides. The central west animals are herein named as a species new to science, Mentocrex beankaensis, sp. nov.

Alaotra Grebe has been declared Extinct in the 2010 Red List update for birds

Art: Chris Rose

BirdLife International has announced, in the 2010 IUCN Red List update for birds, the extinction of Alaotra Grebe Tachybaptus rufolavatus. Restricted to a tiny area of east Madagascar, this species declined rapidly after carnivorous fish were introduced to the lakes in which it lived. This, along with the use of nylon gill-nets by fisherman which caught and drowned birds, has driven this species into the abyss.

The natural rate of bird extinction is one bird per century. In the last thirty years alone, 21 bird species have become extinct. At present, 197 are classified as Critically Endangered. On the very edge of extinction. Without immediate action, many will not be here in ten years’ time.

According to the IUCN Red List, 131 bird species have become Extinct since 1500, with an additional four species surviving only in captivity and classified as Extinct in the Wild. But a new paper by BirdLife’s Stuart Butchart and Alison Stattersfield and Conservation International’s Tom Brooks argues that the number of recent extinctions documented on the Red List is likely to be "a significant underestimate".

The paper, Going or gone: defining 'Possibly Extinct' species to give a truer picture of recent extinctions (published in The Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club), describes the method the authors have developed to identify 15 Critically Endangered species as Possibly Extinct (PE).

"A precautionary approach by IUCN to classifying extinctions is appropriate in order to encourage continuing conservation efforts until there is no reasonable doubt that the last individual of a species has died," says lead author Dr Stuart Butchart, BirdLife's Global Species Programme Coordinator. However, this approach means that analyses of recent extinctions are likely to come up with unduly optimistic figures.

"We defined ‘Possibly Extinct’ species as those that are, on the balance of evidence, likely to be extinct, but for which there is a small chance that they may be extant and thus should not be listed as Extinct until adequate surveys have failed to find the species and local or unconfirmed reports have been discounted," Butchart explains. "Adding this tag to the Red List allows more realistic assessment of extinction rates without giving up on species prematurely."

Some Possibly Extinct species have not been recorded for more than 50 years, with the record being held by Hooded Seedeater Sporophila melanops – not seen since it was discovered in central Brazil in 1823. Others have undergone well-documented declines, such as the Oloma'o Myadestes lanaiensis, a Hawaiian thrush that was last seen in 1980 following its disappearance resulting from habitat destruction and introduced avian malaria.

"Combining data on these 15 species with data for 135 Extinct and Extinct in the Wild species shows that over the last century bird species have become extinct at a rate of one every 1.8 years," says Butchart. "Habitat loss and degradation, invasive species, and exploitation have been the main causes of extinction."

Recent surveys on its coastal Patagonian wintering grounds indicate that the Endangered Hooded Grebe Podiceps gallardoi has declined by 40% in the last seven years and this, along with alarming new threats detected on its breeding grounds during 2011, indicate action is now urgently required to prevent the rapidly increasing threat of its extinction.In response to these worrying findings, Aves Argentinas (BirdLife in Argentina) has mounted a wide-ranging offensive to protect this highly-threatened migratory species from further decline.

In support, we are launching an international online appeal through the BirdLife Preventing Extinctions Programme to help fund the urgently required conservation action that they have already begun.

The decline of the Atitlán Grebe began in 1958 and again in 1960 after Smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu) and Largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) were introduced into Lake Atitlán. These invasive species reduced the crabs and fish which the grebes depended on for food and the fish even killed the grebe chicks. The population of the Atitlán Grebe declined from 200 individuals in 1960 to 80 in 1965. Thanks to the conservation efforts of Anne LaBastille, in 1966 a refuge was established where this species was able to rebound. The population recovered to 210 in 1973. Unfortunately after the 1976 Guatemala earthquake, the lake bed fractured. An underwater drain led to a fall of the water level and to a further severe decrease of the number of grebes. In 1983 only 32 individuals were left, of which the largest part were hybrids with the Pied-billed Grebe. The last two birds were seen in 1989, and after they disappeared the Atitlán Grebe was declared officially extinct.